The 75th edition of the United Nations General Assembly was a unique one. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaders did not attend the UN headquarters, in New York, sending in pre-recorded speeches instead. The result was perhaps the worst Zoom conference ever. Brazil opened the general debates, as is customary — with President Jair Bolsonaro using his 14 minutes to spread multiple falsehoods and pander to his own base — instead of addressing the world’s concerns about Brazil.
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On this episode:
- Guilherme Casarões holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of São Paulo. He is the deputy-coordinator of the Public Administration School at think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas, and has launched the Observatory of the Far-Right, a project to monitor the behavior of extremist groups in the political arena.
Background reading:
- Read the transcripts of Jair Bolsonaro’s address to the United Nations General Assembly. If you are a premium subscriber of The Brazilian Report, the speech didn’t catch you off guard — we had already revealed the core points of the address last week.
- By the way, do you know why Brazil speaks first at the UN General Assembly?
- Listen to Episode #79, which talks about Mr. Bolsonaro’s 2019 UN debut — with a speech that outraged multiple international observers.
- Lucas Berti explains Brazil’s role in the United Nations: before and after Jair Bolsonaro and the country’s involvement in UN peacekeeping efforts.
- Jair Bolsonaro used his speech to praise U.S. President Donald Trump — but Mr. Trump could be out of office by January 2021. What would change if Joe Biden wins the U.S. election?
- Three groups clash for foreign policy control in the Bolsonaro administration. Political scientist Maurício Santoro explains.
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